It’s not controversial to say that the student housing system is broken.
A student said to us recently that they’re at the point now where they’re always worried. They’re worried about saving money for rent, for food, for transport – they’re stressed about the future. And of course this is an experience many can relate to.
16 per cent of students live in accommodation that their loan does not cover. This essentially means that the taxpayer-funded student loans often go straight into the pockets of private landlords.
Rent prices in Greater Manchester have increased by 103 per cent in the last 20 years and student rent prices are rising much faster.
Students are experiencing rising costs, unvaried housing stock, rising demands for beds coupled with stagnant supply. Many will remember in 2022 when University of Manchester students were being offered housing in Liverpool, over 30 miles away from their university.
The housing crisis is causing changes in student behaviour, with many choosing to live at home or live further away from campus and commute long (and expensive) distances. But this isn’t an option for everyone, and it’s often the most disadvantaged students who lose out.
Housing is the backdrop to which we expect student success to happen. If you want students to thrive, housing is an essential pillar.
Since its creation, the Greater Manchester Student Partnership (GMSP) has been highlighting the numerous issues with the student housing system in Greater Manchester. While we have always considered different solutions, it was a trip to Stockholm in 2025 that a radical alternative to student housing materialised.
There’s another way
The SSSB in Stockholm provides an example of what affordable, realistic, and flexible student accommodation can look like.
A not-for-profit housing organisation, set up by students in 1958, allows students to access rooms which are below market rates and then stay for up to six years. It relies on a system where students can leave their previous accommodation at the last minute and move into the SSSB.
This is only just feasible in the UK with the new Renters’ Rights Act and the end of fixed-term contracts (except for purpose built student accommodation and university halls).
And in Antwerp, GATE15 is a house run by students, for students. It provides a third space for students to use as needed, with student rooms available nearby with AG VESPA.
These are more ethical housing systems which take into consideration the needs of students without compromising on price.
While our work with the Combined Authority in Greater Manchester had, up until this point, been mainly describing the problems with student housing, we now want to provide some achievable solutions. This is when the GMSP’s manifesto “Toward a Housing Utopia in Greater Manchester” was born.
Making a house a home
To recap, the GMSP consists of student officers from each of the five SUs in Greater Manchester. The board brings perspectives from every corner of the city and together they present the student case to the local government.
The GMSP campaigns to make sure that students are involved in policy making in the city where they live, work, and study. For example, we’ve been working with the Good Landlord Charter implementation team to ensure that student landlords commit to a higher quality of housing.
And together we managed to get the three biggest university accommodation providers to agree to the charter’s membership criteria. This will, hopefully, tangibly improve students’ living standards.
We recently talked to students about their housing and asked them to give feedback in a survey. Only 51 per cent agreed that their accommodation was good value for money.
Ten per cent reported that they have experienced or expect to experience homelessness. 49 per cent had experienced one or many issues with their current accommodation. 49 per cent felt that if issues were raised to their landlord, it was not dealt with in a timely manner.
The standard of student accommodation is so low students are normalising preparing to experience homelessness. However, students are a particularly vulnerable group. For many, they’re first time renters, their knowledge of minimum standards and renting rights is much less developed and even if they are aware that their rights have been transgressed, they’re less likely to have the time or money to challenge issues.
Brick by brick
The GMSP has put together six key ideas that could get Greater Manchester closer towards a housing utopia.
The first is to explore a Greater Manchester student garden-village model, like that at the University of Reading. This could be achieved by the Greater Manchester universities, the constituent local authorities, and the GMCA forming a public-private company to create a new model of student accommodation for students and graduates.
The second is to create a new model fund to support providers with a positive track record to trial new models of student accommodation.
The combined authority could also conduct a Greater Manchester student housing review to improve accessibility, affordability, and graduate retention. This would be achieved by ensuring existing standards are actually being met in student accommodations.
Any new student accommodation should be required to consider affordability, as set out by The National Policy Planning Framework, alongside rent caps in Greater Manchester and rent control options for Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA).
Finally, in a housing utopia the Good Landlord Charter would be strengthened for students by making it mandatory that all student landlords sign up and create a specific student inspectorate. This would be similar to the Antwerp model where students annually agree the city, and its accommodation, is liveable for students.
What next?
If student accommodation and housing is the backdrop to which we expect students to excel in their studies, their lives, and their work, then sub-par, unreliable, and expensive housing is an explicit risk to the student experience.
The GMSP is in a unique position to channel the resources and expertise of universities and local government with the passion and vision of SUs and students themselves. Greater Manchester has so many things to be proud of, from its music scene to its entrepreneurial spirit – housing should be added to that list. The proposals in our vision for a housing utopia may be radical but they also could transform the way students live for the better.
While the new Renters’ Rights Act and the Good Landlord Charter are steps in the right direction, they can’t be the end point: more change is needed. Sticking plasters aren’t sufficient to fix a housing system that is fundamentally broken, what’s needed is innovative, radical, and utopian thinking.
Students are too often left out of policymaking when it comes to the town or city where they live and study. Combined authorities and metro mayors need to consider the economic engine that is students and graduates living and staying in these regions. By raising living standards, students and the city benefit, graduates will stick around and in the meantime students will feel less like tourists and more like citizens.
